I've had 24 Pitt Artist brush pens for a while now though I wasn't sure if I really like them. They are so bright! I also have a pad of stone paper. Yep, it's really made of stone. The pad I have is called Terra Skin and is distributed by Mitz Art. It's very soft and smooth and I just enjoy running my fingers over the surface and touching it. I took a few minutes today to do some experimenting with the brush pens on stone paper. They dry fast but can be blended if you're quick about it! These are some of the Pitt brush pens. The colours are strong and bright but blending quickly with a finger can tone them down a bit.
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Had a great time at the Provincial Museum today with my sketch buddies. We got started at around 10:30, going separate ways and then meeting for lunch in the cafe and sharing our sketches. I started in the Alberta birds gallery and some nests caught my eye in a glass display case. Then I moved on to the great wall of stuffed birds and came upon a heron and a frog caught eternally in one of those "cycle of life" moments. I liked it because out of all the birds on display, this one had some drama. Before and after lunch, I found myself in the Aboriginal gallery. The first drawing is from one of my favorite dioramas; of people building a weir and catching and gutting fish. The next one is just a compilation of a few artifacts that I found appealing, and the last one is a little surreal. It's a doorway into one of the small galleries, framed by a teepee form.
We picked up a couple of South African amarylis bulbs at the farmers' market just before Christmas. They sure are a showy flower. Here's my time lapse drawing series of one of them as it grew from an opening bud to full flower.
These sketches were done in the past three days. All but one were done at home, just practicing and playing and practicing some more. This isn't a resolution for the new year, but I'm keeping my sketchbook close at hand, whipping it out to draw whenever I can, which really, is more often than not. The more I sketch, the more comfortable I become with sketching. And that, folks, is a very good feeling indeed. I found myself, two nights in a row, with not a lot to do except put my feet up and draw, which I actually consider productive evenings!
The sky was an incomparable Alberta blue today. The temperature hovered around 8 degrees. It was warm and lovely. A perfect day for a walk. So I wandered downtown, which is really up since I live in the river valley and downtown is up a pretty steep hill, if you choose to go that way, which I didn't. My walk took me along the river path. Right next to the walk bridge that takes you south to the Muttart Conservatory are two benches that face the southeast bend in the river. I sat down and sketched the half-frozen river and the long shadows of the trees. Funny though. I didn't notice until I scanned it that the footprints in the snow look suspiciously like a line of flat fish. sigh.
I stopped at Starbucks for a latte before heading home a couple of hours later. The only available seat was on a stool facing out the window towards the old CIBC building on 100 St. And so, I sketched that too. I use a Pigma Micron .05 black pen. When I got home, I couldn't find my paint box so I coloured the sketches with water soluble coloured pencils. _ After a very long hiatus, I'm back at my blog. Notice the fresh new look? I've spruced it up, changed the name to reflect, more or less, what I do (ramble around exploring art) and changed the url. For those of you who know me, it'll be easier to remember! I've also made it easier for you to follow me, if you're so inclined. Along with the RSS feed option, you can now subscribe to yours truly. It's as easy as 1-2-3. I promise not to overload you with blog posts (no real danger of that since my last one was back in September). But if you do subscribe, you'll get notified when I post my latest visual ramblings.
Last fall, I participated in a beginners' acrylic painting class at the City Arts Centre. It was great and it's something I've wanted to do forever. I didn't post any of the results because, well, they are pretty basic, beginner stuff. And because it's all way bigger than my scanner, meaning that it's a bit of a production getting my camera and tripod set up and figuring out the lighting, etc., and so on. In the meantime, here's a mixed media piece I did a while back. It's 24cm x 19 cm on board. Happy New Year everyone. May 2012 be filled with happiness, good cheer, and lots of art for each of you. Over the past two weeks, I've tried to get out and about sketching bits of Edmonton. Here are four I particularly like. Hope you do too. There's a bit more info about them over at Urban Sketchers - Edmonton, plus a bunch of sketches by a few other Edmonton sketchers.
On the third day of a recent vacation to North Ontario, I slipped on some uneven stairs injuring my left foot and spraining my right ankle. For the next ten days, I couldn't walk further than the bathroom. I found myself sitting for great lengths of time in backyards, the car, and other places with the perfect opportunity to draw whatever was in front of me. These are a few of the sketches from my sketchbook. (The first one "Strawberry Fields Temporarily" was done before the "fall".) The colours are not quite right but, oh well. On a short road trip along the Trans Canada Highway east to Nipigon and Rossport, I grabbed my sketchbook and did a series of drive-by drawings. Just so you know, I was in the passenger seat. I got this idea from my friend, Robin who knows someone who can do this on the back of a motorcycle. Really. Oh, and some of them are obviously not drive bys....
I've gone as far as I want with this image. I call her Juno. It's too bad really, that the colour reproduction is so so crappy. Although she's drawn in two shades of grey, I added a layer of Prismacolor Ginger for warmth and set her against the cool blue background. The lighting for the photo is kind of yucky too. You can see the cast shadow on the right, especially at the top. Oh well. My next big challenge is to figure out what I want to draw next. That can take a bit of time. But tomorrow, is the 32nd Worldwide Sketch Crawl day and there is a group of us that will brave the elements and sketch. Looking forward to it with a certain amount of fear and trepidation :-) Just have to remind myself to sketch loose and not worry about how "good" it is. Sigh. How can you tell I'm into control? |
Welcome to my occasional posts
My name is Yvonne Rezek. This is a blog about what my hands are up to. Mostly sketches and drawings, some of my pottery, maybe even some knitting.
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